1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a guide device for linearly guiding a zoom lens barrel.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, compact cameras with a telescoping type zoom lens having more than two telescoping lens barrels have been manufactured in order to reduce the thickness of the camera when the zoom lens is retracted in the camera body. In such cameras, a pinion of a drive mechanism for driving the zoom lens is generally provided on one of the telescoping lens barrels, with a portion of the teeth of the pinion projecting from the outer periphery of the one of the telescoping lens barrels so as to transmit a driving force from the one of the telescoping lens barrels to another telescoping lens barrel fitted in the one of the telescoping lens barrels.
When a strong driving force is applied to the pinion and the stiffness of the structure supporting the pinion shaft is insufficient, the supporting portion will deflect, which may cause the efficiency of transmitting the driving force using the pinion to be reduced. This problem may be solved by increasing the stiffness of the supporting portion of the telescoping lens barrel using metal or the like, however, this may cause problems of increased production costs and an increased weight of the final product.